The church at Rennes-le-Château has the remains of a black band painted on its external walls called in French "Litre funéraire" – originating from the Latin words “litura funeris”, meaning “place that is revised for funeral”.

These black bands represented decorations of a person’s funeral, those on the outside of churches were only painted if the deceased was a "seigneur haut-justicier" (a seigneur with legal power to try major civil and criminal cases).

An old Rennes-le-Château Parish Register relating to the years between 1694-1726 recorded the burial of Monsieur Henry du Vernet in 1724:

‘In the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-four, on the twenty-fourth day of October, at Rennes, in the diocese of Alet, the death occurred of the noble gentleman Henry de Vernet, lieutenant colonel of cavalry in the regiment of Ruftège, who, having received the last rites, was buried in the village church, in the Tomb of the Lords…’

These bands were painted on churches from about the 11th century until their abolition in 1791 by the National Assembly of the French Revolution.

Reference
Pierre Bodin, Les litres seigneuriales des églises de l’Eure. Amis des Monuments et Sites de l’Eure, Amis de Bernay, Condé-sur-Noireau (2005)